Indian and American artist ganavya (aka Ganavya Doraiswamy) has been hailed as a vibrant new voice in modern music, blending spiritual jazz with Indian devotional music and atmospheric textural sounds.
The singer, songwriter and musician has collaborated with some of the most influential jazz musicians of the past three generations, including Quincy Jones, Esperanza Spalding, Charles Lloyd and Wayne Shorter.
Given her 2024 album Daughter of a Temple was declared BBC 6’s Music Album of the Year and one of The Guardian’s Top 10 Best Global Albums, it is maybe understandable gavanya felt unsure about her next release.
Nilam, which features long-time collaborators bassist Max Ridley and harpist Charles Overton, was recorded in less than a week between performances in Berlin and London in 2025.
“I kept insisting, ‘We don’t have an album’,” ganavya said.
“I didn’t want to release something for the sake of releasing something. I remember disagreeing until the very last minute, but after we managed to get everything on tape…I remember sitting on the sofa realising, ‘Well, maybe they were right!’
“Though I couldn’t see it earlier, all the songs are connected. Maybe that’s the beauty, that when we step back from something, we see how everything is connected.”
Nilam’s central theme, ganavya said, is “doing what we need to do to keep carrying on”, something she is familiar with after two years of nearly constant touring.
“Some days are good, and some days are bad,” she said.
“I feel like I barely made it out this past touring cycle, but the actual singing is always good. I realised, with every bone in my body, that unless you absolutely, absolutely want to be a musician, there’s just no sense doing this professionally.
“And still, I wake up every day and I am certain that I want to keep singing.”
Ganavya is at the Platform Arts Performance Space on Sunday 1 March. Visit platformarts.org.au for tickets and more information.
